Mar 21, 2012

A study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology found that changing weather conditions can impact the metabolic rates of fur seal pups. Climate models predict windier and wetter conditions in Antarctica in the coming years, and that could cause young seals to assign more energy to thermoregulation, leaving less available for growth and development. Credit: Photo courtesy of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology/University of Chicago Press

A new study suggests that climate change could pose a risk for Antarctic fur seals in their first few months of life.

The study, published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, found that changing weather conditions can impact the metabolic rates of fur seal pups. Climate models predict windier and wetter conditions in Antarctica in the coming years, and that could cause young seals to assign more energy to thermoregulation, leaving less available for growth and development.

For their study, a team of scientists led by Dr. Birgitte McDonald (University of University of California, Santa Cruz) gathered data from 48 young seals on Livingston Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, to find out how much energy pups get from their mothers and how they use it.

"Energy budgets are important if we are to understand how individuals interact with their environment," McDonald said. "In juvenile animals we need to know how they allocate energy towards growth, energy storage, maintenance including thermoregulation, and development of foraging skills to facilitate a successful transition to independence."

The team measured milk energy intake, field metabolic rate, and growth rate over three developmental periods during in the seals' first four months of life, when they are completely dependent on mother's milk. The research found that in newborn pups, around 60 percent of the milk energy they receive from their mothers goes to growth. But as the pups get older and their mothers begin leaving them behind periodically to go on foraging trips, that percentage begins to fall. By the age of one month, pups only have about 25 percent of their energy available for growth.

As expected, the researchers found that the biggest predictor of a pup's growth rate was the amount of milk they ingested, showing just how important maternal investment is when growing up in such harsh conditions. But other factors were also important in determining a pup's energy throughput, including the pup's size and condition at birth and environmental factors like weather.

"If climate change models are correct and the Antarctic Peninsula gets windier and wetter weather, this may influence how much energy is available for growth," McDonald said. "Changes in prey availability and climate may lead pups to conserve energy by sacrificing the development of foraging skill or to wean at a lower mass or body condition, resulting in negative impacts on the ability to transition successfully to nutritional independence."

McDonald hopes the research will lead to better predictions about how a changing environment may ultimately affect young seals and seal populations.

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What is ludicrous about this research?, there's hundreds of other studies like it on physorg, scientists take the results of models and extrapolate them. The study of biology has led to genetic engineering and stem cells, your assertion that this study is nonsense is predicated upon your certainty that insights gained from these studies will never be useful to anyone else, which, in the absence of any supporting argument, is more akin to the ravings of a drooling idiot, go back to your bible and wallow in your ignorance.

Yea, right. Imagine putting that research on your resume when applying for a job at IBM. What have you done for the past few years? I stood out in the cold milking fur seals.

Give me a break! The US does not have the resources to allow this many people to do useless "Work". The CO2 scam is draining valuable resources and forcing us waste precious dollars on needless projects.

Anyone who does not know the real purpose of the article has to be brain dead. Starting with the loveable seal photograph at the head of the article it proceeds to tell us how a few tenths of a degree of warming (climate change) will cause all of these adorable baby seals to wither and die.

Any one with half a brain can see the political motivation behind this sort of "research" err propaganda.

VD you might not realize the purpose of this sort of propaganda but I do. It is just part of a slow step by step process to strip individuals and nations of their autonomy. The ultimate goal is to form a one world government with all of the power and wealth concentrated in the hands of a select few. Here in the US it is hard enough to deal with the local governments if you want to start a new project. If the state gets involved it becomes a tangled mess. If the federal government gets involved it becomes impossible for the average person to cope with the regulations. So imagine what it will be like when something like the UN has the final say on the laws that govern YOU!

Contrary to the liberal/progressive/socialist/communist dream, more government equals less creation of wealth, more poverty and more starvation.

"the liberal/progressive/socialist/communist dream", wow, what a well thought out argument, you've certainly given me pause for thought, I particularly like the way you occasionally use upper case for emphasis, ordinarily, that would make you look like a CRAZY PERSON.

"How does research on the metabolism of immature seals result in an increase of government size, less wealth, more poverty, starvation, and a socialist state, Komrade? CRAZY PERSON."

UHHH, the very first paragraph.

"The study, published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, found that changing weather conditions can impact the metabolic rates of fur seal pups. Climate models predict windier and wetter conditions in Antarctica in the coming years, and that could cause young seals to assign more energy to thermoregulation, leaving less available for growth and development."

The whole study is based on the supposed AGW not natural climate change. They have no basis to predict that the Arctic will be wetter or warmer in the future other than some contrived climate model who's outcome was predetermined.